The judge wasn’t swayed by an argument by the DA’s lawyer that it’s too hard to find the records.
But the judge didn’t recall the arrest warrant until after the case was dropped.
District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro has said people faced “no legal consequences” if they failed to obey fake subpoenas sent by his office. But one of his prosecutors got an arrest warrant for a woman in part because she didn’t obey a fake subpoena. She was never arrested because the charges were dropped.
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Attorney Craig Mordock says he hopes other lawyers follow suit.
We reviewed 33 notices sent by prosecutors since 2015. They had the court clerk’s name on them and told people they were “notified … to testify.” DA Warren Montgomery said they were misleading, but he doesn’t believe they were misused. A legal expert called them a sham.
His office has told us it doesn’t know how often they were used, and it’s too hard to look.
In rejecting a public-records request from The Lens, the district attorney's office said it was too burdensome.
The possibilities include disciplinary action, federal charges, and nothing at all.